Browsing by Author "Shinedima, Elise"

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    A functional stylistics analysis of David Smuts’ death, detention and disappearance: A lawyer’s battle to hold power to account in 1980s Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2022) Shinedima, Elise
    The study examined the thematic concerns in Smuts’s Death, Detention and Disappearance: A Lawyer’s Battle to Hold Power to Account in 1980s Namibia as evinced through the author’s utilisation of the three different metafunctions of language – the interpersonal, textual and ideational, as explicated by Halliday (1975). Adopting a two thronged approach, the thesis attempted a theoretical appreciation of the text from a Functional Stylistics perspective (Halliday & Hasan, 1995), while also explicating how the usage of the three meta-functions of language represents for us an avenue to better understand and appreciate the Smuts’ concerns with regards to this historical epoch within Namibia. The study probes Smuts’s use of the interpersonal function of language (in line with mood, modality and person) as well assessing the manner and purposes of use of the ideational function of language (in connection with modification, apposition and coordination) within the text and how these contribute towards a better understanding and appreciation of the text. Furthermore, the enquiry observed and acknowledges the practice of the detailed elements of different meta-functions, and explored how the specific elements produce a multiplicity of meanings centred on how different readers will evaluate and interpret the text. Adopting a qualitative design, the analysis conducted herein drew largely on the desire to understand the meanings that the writer creates in the text, and which the reader negotiates. Through content analysis, the study observed that Smuts’s use of the stipulated elements of the two meta-functions of language was to chiefly articulate his intents throughout the text. The study notes that ideational elements are used to postulate more information and to develop relations in the narrative. Smuts’s use of the interpersonal features are to communicate his personal opinions of things and how he perceives experiences. The study concludes that one is only able to fully comprehend narratives when meanings are taken into account, valued and absorbed completely by making use of the specified elements of the two out of three meta-functions of language as utilised by an author.